Live From The Side Of The Road IN MONTANA AGAIN – I Can’t Make This Stuff Up!
Right rear tire shredded
It was bound to happen, we all knew it. Yes, Reporting in LIVE from the side of the road. In MONTANA again.. Between Billings and Sheridan Wyoming….Our trusty reporter. Paul “Broken Down By the side of the road reporter” Harrison is reporting in. With a shredded tire.
In the middle of no where, wear, where..
Technically according to the GPS see below.. NEXT EXIT 530 Miles.
Closest gas station 42 miles. Now, for all of you nit pickers, this is a two year old trailer. And not a cheap one or cheap tires. Its just being driven by …you know who.. so.. The combo of Montana and Paul is not a good mix. And its not like anyone from Wyoming is going to help. Inside joke by the way.. We have 0 readers in Wyoming.. The tire shredded and tore up the fender, which Paul is trying to separate from the wheel or tire.. Dang..
UPDATE: Paul is back on the road and will be checking the wheels every ten miles now..
Remind me to never travel with Paul.
I just had to pull over to read this one. If driving under the influence of LOL isn’t illegal, it oughta be.
Now you all know the tune. Sing along with me.
“Trailer for sale or rent…”
Good thing he had a double axel trailer, and presumably a spare.
That 530 until nearest exit is a bit suspect, even if he has it setup to read them newfangled metric units. Perhaps it is the distance to the nearest exit from the country.
Chad’s on to something. Paul shouldn’t be on the road. Time to start a collection to help him buy one of these.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-130_Hercules
Surely it can’t be worse on fuel than Barnwood. Wait a minute. Paul ran out of fuel in Barnwood, didn’t he? And not just once, but twice, in close succession.
Forget the plane.
Wow!! It’s always an experience with the Harrisons! Well, an optimist would say, “at least it wasn’t the drive shaft……..” OOOps…..*TOUCH WOOD*
So I guess it doesnt matter how much money you have or how great your stuff is, SHIT STILL HAPPENS!
Sorry paul!
Alex nice header shot!
I agree on the nice header comment. This place has a lot of nice headers but this one really stood out and grabbed my eye.
the 530 miles I think refers to the number of the next exit. This was about 40 miles from anything, 25 miles or so away from the Little Bighorn, but it is a nice day.
Bending the fender out of the way was the biggest problem, and sliding the trolley jack under at a decent jacking point was also a trial because it was so low. But, at least I had some tools with me.
Ordinarily I love Montana, it is truly a beautiful state but I am starting to wonder……
This is truly amazing. I was just talking to Paul earlier today and now this. Bad Karma.
Seriously, i think Paul has done more driving in order to share his great boats with others than probably anyone I can think of. I believe his latest effort involves something like 5000 miles of driving. Sooner or later the odds are going to catch up with him.
It really is a labor of love, and we who get to see these boats probably should donate to his car repair fund!
Didn’t Karen fly home? Even she knows that a trip with Paul always involves some kind of repair. Just like an airline flight with Mike Mayers always involves a delay.(sorry Mike)
Yes Kim, Karen is much the wiser of us two and she flew home on Sunday night. Her biggest problem was a 40 minute delay. She knows better than to ride with me I guess…..
Did she at least pack you a cooler before her flight??
I don’t want to say anything about Paul’s luck here with a road trip coming up for me. I don’t need any bad mojo. Hope the rest of your trip was uneventful. Concerning the header, they are all great but this one does stand alone. Great shot. And details about it?
Rick, thank you.
The photo was taken in Hessel a couple years ago. Camera was a simple Lumix (Panasonic) point and click.
Boats are a ’49 25′ Sportsman and ’46 22-U (yes, that pre-war windshield is original — special ordered).
Ahhhhhhh. Summer in Hessel. Counting the, er, months…
Alex – You only have 7 weeks or 1.6 months or 49 days left to go. Be patient, it will pass quickly.
BUMMER.
Ah, that is a beautiful picture of the Hessel area, one of my favorite destinations. I think my U-22 would like to visit in person. I remember attending the boat show there a few years ago and it HAILED during the show; I don’t mean a few stray pieces of falling ice, but real accumulation in the boats. And then it was sunny, at least till Sunday afternoon when bad weather moved in again and the boats scrambled for their home ports. And then it was sunny! I love Michigan.
I thought you were taking that boat to Florida?? So we have been asking if we should have a Roadside Assitance program for our policy holders…..thinking Paul might influence the decision…….claims would be too high…..
You could just add a codicil (sp?, not that it matters here) that coverage is for anyone NOT named Paul.
So you noticed the quirk in the trip route and timing also. It might appear to be a slight of the hand issue by Matt, but I think there is a much clearer explanation…
I suspect Paul suffers from two rather rare medical conditions. The first is ATD (Associative Time Disorder), which is periodically triggered by the second, much more severe underlying medical issue, PTSD (Post Traumatic Side-ah-the-road Disorder).
One of the major symptom of PTSD is the likelihood of experiencing post incident flash backs. They usually occur 7 to 10 days after the traumatic incident and are usually triggered by an incident that initiates an extreme sense of fear and dread. In this particular case, the flash back may have been triggered when Paul was traveling through Florida and he subconsciously imagined having the flat while on a deserted stretch of road in the middle of the swamp, this triggered the fear that he would not only have to fight the jack and fender…but also the alligators that he was up to his ass in… It clearly was way too much for him to handle in his fragile emotional state and the ATD kicked in.
I heard that someone pee,d on that tire in Texas. Sorry Paul
End Of The Line…
I guess you can’t make this stuff up!
when we first got dad’s boat and were bringing it home from illinois to florida, had a couple of problems en route…
1) one of the windshields on the boat fell off (we hadn’t even travelled 50 miles…should have been on omen). thankfully landed in the seat unbroken.
2) chose the hilly route through the mountains to avoid an approaching storm…storm caught up to us and then…
3) something in the motor of our truck let loose, the smoke was so bad we couldn’t even see the boat and thought it was on fire
4) we coasted to a stop at a downhill curve on the mountainous interstate with semitrucks flying by us in pouring rain. (i was carrying my trusty flask…since i wasn’t driving…you betcha, i partook!)
5) did we mentioned it’s the friday of Easter weekend
6) stayed in knoxville, tenn. for 4 days while the truck was repaired…
found some great golf courses including one called the Wee Course, it’s all par 3’s…
had a great time making the most of a bad situation.
all things considered…i’d rather breakdown near knoxville!
Knoxville is actually a very friendly area. About 3 years ago I trailered out boat down there and blew out the seals on the trailer. Limped to a recommended trailer supply and repair down on I75 where they dropped what they were doing to help me out.
not to mention beautiful, too bad the boat wasn’t working at the time or we’d have found a way to get it wet!
Us Cruiser guys NEVER have this sort of problem and we are smug about it!
Sure, we sink, stink, but rarely have to shrink, and that deal will drive you to drink…so just think…jump in the dink…and good boating!
Sorry Paul, …. happens.
John in Va.
Paul,
Keep your chin up and keep going! You are out there getting the boats to the shows!! Most people don’t realize the amount of time you spend behind the wheel of your truck vs the time at the show. Thank you for telling us your ongoing story.
Paul, check your flexible brake line routing on that wheel, looks like its severely kinked when the carcase of the tire caught it and brushed it forward making quite a radical turn from the fixed line transition.
Reminds me of the time we were driving Atlanta to Naples Maine show with my 1924 Hacker in tow. At 2am in Virginia my wife was driving while I was sleeping and she said all the truckers were flashing their lights at her as they passed. I looked out the back window and saw a shower of sparks from right side of trailer. I told her to pull over and the right rear tire shredded and the steel belts wrapped around the axle. So i asked what she saw in the outside rear view mirror? ” I can’t see anything.”
It did take a while to pry all those belts off and around that axle. Thankfully, the spare carried us the rest of the way ’till I could find a replacement. Good luck with rest of trip Paul.